When was the last time you booked a flight ticket for yourself and paid extra for a window seat? Quite recently? More frequently? Well, there’s a reason for the same. A survey by LocalCicles revealed that 47% of respondents paid extra just to book a seat of their choice. Just like there are no free meals in this world, there are no such things as free seats (of your choice) either on flights. Let’s tell you why.
Here’s Why Flights Don’t Offer Free Seats Of Choice To Passengers
A report by Business Insider India throws light on the survey by LocalCicles. The survey finds out that the cash-strapped aviation industry is constantly on the lookout for increasing revenues. For this reason, they are increasing revenues through seat bookings and other sources. So, it’s no coincidence that you don’t get a seat of your choice unless you are willing to shell out big bucks for it.
Around 51 per cent of fliers surveyed stated that they didn’t even get an option to choose their seat on flights without additional charges. This stood at around 35 per cent around the same time in 2022. Flyers are increasingly taking to X (formerly Twitter) to raise issues on the requirement of having to pay extra for seats of their choice. The lack of free seats on flights is turning into quite a nuisance for many of them.
With 47 per cent of respondents stating to LocalCircles that they ended up paying additional charges for seats over and above their flight tickets, it proves that there are no free seats on flights anymore. A total of 34,000 flyers were surveyed from 308 districts in India. Accoridng to the opinions of respondents, many want to cap these paid seat allocations.
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How Much Do Passengers Pay For Their Window & Other Preferential Seats?
Around 48 per cent of fliers strongly feel that 20 per cent of the seats on flights can have a seat allocation fee. So, with flights not offering free seats to passengers of their choice for the sake of increasing their revenue, how much are they earning from this? A Mint report article states that budget flights are earning a whopping ₹60,000-70,000 per flight just by charging extra for preferential seats.
Passengers pay around ₹150-400 for window seats on low-cost airlines like IndiGo. Whereas special and emergency seats are much more expensive and are priced anywhere between ₹800-1,500. But looks like there is a ray of hope for fliers. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) may frame regulations to put a cap on the number of preferential seats flights can offer.
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Meanwhile, do tell us if you have paid extra for a seat of your choice. Let’s hope free seats of choice on flights will be more frequent in the near future.
Cover Image Courtesy: Canva